Method and Apparatus for Providing Content Metadata in Electronic Advertising

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the processing system is part of a real-time bidding advertising exchange, and wherein the auction is a prebid auction.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise performing the auction to receive bid responses that enable a determination of an ad play list for the ad pod of the video stream.

4. The server of claim 3, wherein the determination of the ad play list is by an ad server based in part on a second prebid auction performed by a Supply-Side Platform (SSP) server to obtain other bid responses from other bidders, wherein the second prebid auction does not provide the other bidders with the context data, and wherein the SSP server is operated by a first entity that is distinct from a second entity operating the processing system.

5. The server of claim 4, wherein the context information comprises Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) Data.

6. The server of claim 3, wherein the determination of the ad play list is by an ad server based on a yield policy applied to one or more direct offers obtained by the ad server and wherein the context information comprises Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) Data.

7. The server of claim 1, wherein the context data provided to the at least one bidder enables applying a targeting criterion or an exclusion criterion included in a line item, wherein the accessing the context information further comprises periodically retrieving the context information from a context server and storing the context information.

8. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise generating a performance report that indicates the context data corresponding to the ad pod in which a creative was served.

10. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the providing the context data to the at least one bidder comprises providing the context data to a plurality of Supply-Side Platform (SSP) servers, and wherein the operations further comprise receiving bid responses from at least one of the plurality of SSP servers.

11. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise providing key value information to an ad server to enable the ad server to determine an ad play list for the ad pod of the video stream according to business rules.

12. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the context data provided to the at least one bidder enables applying a targeting criterion or an exclusion criterion included in a line item, wherein the accessing the context information further comprises periodically retrieving the context information from a context server and storing the context information.

13. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the processing system is part of a real-time bidding advertising exchange, and wherein the auction is a prebid auction.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the processing system is part of a real-time bidding advertising exchange, and wherein the auction is a prebid auction.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the context information comprises Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) Data, and wherein the context data provided to the at least one bidder in the prebid auction enables application of a targeting criterion or an exclusion criterion included in a line item.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing key value information to an ad server to enable the ad server to determine an ad play list for the ad pod of the video stream according to business rules.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the business rules include a yield policy that is enforced based on a price for each of a plurality of candidate bid responses, the yield policy being based on increasing revenue for a publisher of the video stream.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the receiving the bid request comprises receiving the bid request from a Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) server.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the providing the context data to the at least one bidder comprises providing the context data to a plurality of Supply-Side Platform (SSP) servers.